Heat pipe structure

ABSTRACT

A heat pipe structure includes a tubular body and a mesh body. The tubular body has a chamber. The chamber has a first side and a second side. A working fluid is contained in the chamber. The wall faces of the first and second sides are respectively formed with a first channel set and a second channel set. A first contact section and a second contact section are respectively formed at the junctions between the first and second channel sets and the wall faces of the first and second sides. The mesh body is disposed in the chamber and attached to the first and second contact sections. Accordingly, the thickness of the heat pipe is greatly reduced and the manufacturing cost of the heat pipe is lowered.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a heat pipe structure, and more particularly to a thinner heat pipe structure manufactured at lower cost.

2. Description of the Related Art

A heat pipe has heat conductivity several times to several tens times that of copper, aluminum or the like. Therefore, the heat pipe has excellent performance and serves as a cooling component applied to various electronic devices. As to the configuration, the conventional heat pipes can be classified into heat pipes in the form of circular tubes and heat pipes in the form of flat plates. For cooling an electronic component such as a CPU, preferably a flat-plate heat pipe or thin heat pipe is used in view of easy installation and larger contact area. To catch up the trend toward miniaturization of cooling mechanism, the heat pipe has become thinner and thinner in adaptation to the cooling mechanism.

The heat pipe is formed with an internal space (chamber) as a flow path for the working fluid contained in the heat pipe. The working fluid is converted between liquid phase and vapor phase through evaporation and condensation and is transferable within the heat pipe for transferring heat. The heat pipe is formed with a sealed void (chamber) in which the working fluid is contained.

The heat pipe is used as a remote end heat conduction member. The heat pipe is fitted through a radiating fin assembly. The working fluid with low boiling point is filled in the heat pipe. The working fluid absorbs heat from a heat-generating electronic component (at the evaporation end) and evaporates into vapor. The vapor working fluid goes to the radiating fin assembly and transfers the heat to the radiating fin assembly (at the condensation end). A cooling fan then carries away the heat to dissipate the heat generated by the electronic component.

The heat pipe is manufactured in such a manner that metal powder is filled into a hollow tubular body by means of a mandrel of a tool. Then the metal powder is sintered to form a capillary structure layer on the inner wall face of the tubular body. Then the tubular body is vacuumed and filled with the working fluid and then sealed. Alternatively, a mesh capillary structure body is placed into a tubular body and sintered to form a capillary structure layer on the inner wall face of the tubular body. Then the tubular body is vacuumed and filled with the working fluid and then sealed. On the demand of the electronic equipment for slim configuration, the heat pipe must be made with the form of a thin plate.

In the conventional technique, the heat pipe is flattened into a flat-plate form to meet the requirement of thinning. After the metal powder is filled into the tubular body and sintered, the tubular body is flattened into a flat plate. Then the flat plate is filled with the working fluid and finally sealed. Alternatively, the tubular body is first flattened into a flat plate. Then the metal powder is filled into the tubular body and sintered. However, after flattened, the internal chamber of the flat plate is extremely narrow. Under such circumstance, it is quite hard to fill the metal powder into the chamber. Moreover, the capillary structure in the heat pipe must provide both support force and capillary attraction for the heat pipe. In such a narrow space, the effect provided by the capillary structure is limited.

Furthermore, the vapor passage inside the heat pipe is so narrow that the vapor-liquid circulation is affected.

According to the above, the conventional technique has the following shortcomings:

1. It is quite hard to process the thin heat pipe.

2. The capillary structure in the heat pipe is likely to be damaged.

3. The manufacturing cost of the thin heat pipe is relatively high.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a thinner heat pipe structure manufactured at lower cost.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a manufacturing method of a thinner heat pipe structure to lower the manufacturing cost of the heat pipe structure.

To achieve the above and other objects, the heat pipe structure of the present invention includes a tubular body and a mesh body.

The tubular body has a chamber. The chamber has a first side and a second side. A working fluid is contained in the chamber. The wall faces of the first and second sides are respectively formed with a first channel set and a second channel set. A first contact section and a second contact section are respectively formed at the junctions between the first and second channel sets and the wall faces of the first and second sides.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective sectional view of a first embodiment of the heat pipe structure of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a second embodiment of the heat pipe structure of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a third embodiment of the heat pipe structure of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a perspective sectional view of a first embodiment of the heat pipe structure of the present invention. According to the first embodiment, the heat pipe structure 1 of the present invention includes a tubular body 11 and a mesh body 12.

The tubular body 11 has a chamber 111. The chamber 111 has a first side 111 a and a second side 111 b. A working fluid 2 is contained in the chamber 111. The wall faces of the first and second sides 111 a, 111 b are respectively formed with a first channel set 112 and a second channel set 113. A first contact section 114 and a second contact section 115 are respectively formed at the junctions between the first and second channel sets 112, 113 and the wall faces of the first and second sides 111 a, 111 b. The first and second channel sets 112, 113 axially extend along the wall faces of the first and second sides 111 a, 111 b.

The chamber 111 further has a third side 111 c and a fourth side 111 d. The first and second sides 111 a, 111 b are opposite to each other. The third and fourth sides 111 c, 111 d are opposite to each other and connected with the first and second sides 111 a, 111 b respectively. The third and fourth sides 111 c, 111 d are free from the first and second channel sets 112, 113.

The mesh body 12 is selected from a group consisting of knitted structure body, cellular structure body and geometrical solid structure body. The mesh body 12 is disposed in the chamber 111 in direct contact and attachment with at least one of the first and second contact sections 114, 115. Preferably, the mesh body 12 is attached to the second channel set 113 of the second side 111 b. The mesh body 12 is a metal mesh or a fiber mesh.

The configuration of the channels of the first and second channel sets 112, 113 is selected from a group consisting of triangular shape, semicircular shape, cylindrical shape and Ω-shape. In this embodiment, the configuration of the channels is, but not limited to, triangular shape.

Please now refer to FIG. 2, which is a sectional view of a second embodiment of the heat pipe structure of the present invention. The second embodiment is partially identical to the first embodiment in structure and thus will not be repeatedly described hereinafter. The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the configuration of the channels of the first and second channel sets 112, 113 is selected from a group consisting of semicircular shape, cylindrical shape and Ω-shape. In this embodiment, the configuration of the channels is, but not limited to, Ω-shape.

Please now refer to FIG. 3, which is a sectional view of a third embodiment of the heat pipe structure of the present invention. The third embodiment is partially identical to the first embodiment in structure and thus will not be repeatedly described hereinafter. The third embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the configuration of the channels of the first and second channel sets 112, 113 is selected from a group consisting of semicircular shape, cylindrical shape and Ω-shape. In this embodiment, the configuration of the channels of the first channel set 112 is Ω-shape, while the configuration of the channels of the second channel set 113 is semicircular shape.

According to the first, second and third embodiments of the heat pipe structure of the present invention, the mesh body is used instead of the conventional sintered powder. This can greatly reduce the total thickness of the heat pipe to achieve thinner heat pipe. Moreover, the first channel set 112 serves as a vapor passage, while the second channel set 113 enhances the capillary attraction, whereby the efficiency of the vapor-liquid circulation is enhanced.

In addition, while being thinned, the heat pipe still keeps sufficiently large vapor passage so that the vapor-liquid circulation within the heat pipe can continuously take place without affection of the narrow space.

Also, after the liquid working fluid 21 in the chamber 111 is evaporated into vapor working fluid 22, the first channel set 112 serves as a vapor passage, whereby the vapor working fluid 22 can spread within the first channel set 112. Then the vapor working fluid 22 in the first channel set 112 or at the first and second contact sections 114, 115 is collectively condensed into liquid working fluid 21. Due to gravity, the liquid working fluid 21 drops onto the mesh body 12 and the second channel set 113 to repeat the vapor-liquid circulation.

The present invention has been described with the above embodiments thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the above embodiments can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A heat pipe structure comprising: a tubular body having a chamber, the chamber having a first side and a second side, a working fluid being contained in the chamber, wall faces of the first and second sides being respectively formed with a first channel set and a second channel set, a first contact section and a second contact section being respectively formed at junctions between the first and second channel sets and the wall faces of the first and second sides; and a mesh body disposed in the chamber and attached to at least one of the first and second contact sections.
 2. The heat pipe structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first and second channel sets axially extend along the wall faces of the first and second sides.
 3. The heat pipe structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein the chamber further has a third side and a fourth side, the first and second sides being opposite to each other, the third and fourth sides being opposite to each other and connected with the first and second sides respectively, the third and fourth sides being free from the first and second channel sets.
 4. The heat pipe structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein the channels of the first channel set has a configuration selected from a group consisting of triangular shape, semicircular shape, cylindrical shape and Ω-shape.
 5. The heat pipe structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein the channels of the second channel set has a configuration selected from a group consisting of triangular shape, semicircular shape, cylindrical shape and Ω-shape.
 6. The heat pipe structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mesh body is a metal mesh or a fiber mesh. 